


Transdimensional Tumblr!

by josephina_x



Series: Dimension 46’\-A [18]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Crossover, Gen, Illusion IS Reality, One Year Later, Post-Series, Post-Weirdmageddon, See You Next Summer
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 00:58:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16608821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/josephina_x/pseuds/josephina_x
Summary: Bill is checking the hyperdimensional whatsis on a daily basis now, because Stanley has made it crystal clear that he wants Bill to tell him if thereisa problem of some kind, in ‘whatever fight Bill is keeping tabs on’.Thatseems fine. -Ish. So far.At least, it does up until Bill notices some sort of odd and unexpected disruption stuck in-between those tangled communication lines. So Bill starts to track it down, and then...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Fic: Transdimensional Tumblr!  
> Fandom: Gravity Falls  
> Pairing: n/a  
> Rating: PG-13  
> Spoilers: through the end of the series, and some of the books (Journal #3)  
> Summary: Bill is checking the hyperdimensional whatsis on a daily basis now, because Stanley has made it crystal clear that he wants Bill to tell him if there _is_ a problem of some kind, in ‘whatever fight Bill is keeping tabs on’. _That_ seems fine. -Ish. So far. 
> 
> At least, it does up until Bill notices some sort of odd and unexpected disruption stuck in-between those tangled communication lines. So Bill starts to track it down, and then...  
> Disclaimer: Not mine, not for profit.  
> AN: This fic starts the day after _Presentation and Packaging_ takes place, in the early evening. Most of what happens here happens in the next day or two after that, though.
> 
> Terrible Bill POV yet again! (Truly, the end times are upon us…).
> 
> The posting is actually happening at [thedappercornchip](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com) and [agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com).
> 
> Miz!Bill’s tumblr has an open askbox, so... go have fun there? :)
> 
> -A Bill has kept and is keeping his askbox and ‘submit a post’ closed _for reasons_. (Really, because he’s seen what happens on over at Tesla’s Oscillator / WWTD, and he is _not_ dealing with that shit, thank-you-very-much. He is a busy triangle. He is too busy for our idiocy from our dimension. --And yes, he _did_ finally search for himself on tumblr and _does_ know that our universe in in 2018 at-present, and has a TV show made by an ‘Alex Hirsch’ called Gravity Falls that at least resembles _some_ things that went on in the events in the dimensional set he’s currently in. He does not care. Infinite dimensions -- he’s run into this before. He’s treating this as on par with the whole _Flatland book_ thing that was a thing that happened in _several_ human-populated dimensions, with _several_ Stanford Pines that he’d tried to talk with. So.)

\---

Bill was annoyed and tired, because it had been an hour and he STILL didn’t know what was causing what he was ‘seeing’!

He was trying to map things out better with the tangled lines from that time-distorted hyperdimensional whatsit. --It might be something he didn’t want to _meddle_ with, and it might even be something he couldn’t predict the movements and interactions of without his Eye, but that _didn’t_ mean it was a waste of time to at least _try_ and trace the edges of it a bit, to feel it out better!

(Because if _he_ was that other Bill Cipher, possibly looking for an interfering Bill Cipher from an outside location, trying to hide something within that tangle itself would be... an EXCELLENT place to put something nasty that could make things go VERY BADLY for someone from the outside who was meddling where they shouldn’t be meddling with things.)

(...It would _also_ be a really great place for Bill himself to place something if he needed or wanted to try and slice clean through all those communication lines, cutting them to shreds himself -- but, again, he was trying NOT to meddle, there. _No wars here!_ )

Bill was checking the hyperdimensional whatsis on a daily basis, now, in-line with being able to let Stanley know if there _was_ a problem, in order to keep the agreement. He needed to keep on top of things with that dimension, to know if that other Bill -- who might-or-might-not be a ‘him’, instead of an ‘other-him’ who was NOT him -- was trying to trace him back somehow or do something _problematic_ like start a fight with _THEM_...

And so Bill had been looking in on things there, as carefully as he could, with as light a ‘touch’ as he could manage, feeling about (-- and being a Flatlander, that was a very light touch, indeed). And now Bill was annoyed.

Because there was a point of disruption almost smack-dab in the middle of the tangled lines from that hyperdimensional whatsit connection. _He was sure of it._

The tangled lines of communication were inactive. But there was SOMETHING happening from that region there that was impacting that other dimension, connecting with and through that dimensional boundary. Bill _KNEW_ it.

It was a mess. But the more Bill tried to trace it out, the more convinced he became that, whatever-it-was, it was a _very_ **different** type of mess than the transdimensional whatsit.

In fact, something about it seemed almost, _almost_ familiar.

After awhile, Bill laughed at himself, finally letting it go for the day as he got up from the picnic table and went inside for dinner. ‘ _I’ll trace it out eventually!_ ’ Bill thought.

...And within another day or so, he did.

\---

“What in the….” Bill said, as he FINALLY finished the trace, recognized the _form_ of the signal’s data…

...and easily decrypted that signal he was tracing into _[another blogsite](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/) on that same website, in the very same way, using the very same protocols and algorithms_.

He frowned and started reading.

He blinked when he read about [’the 3rd dimension in their sphere of reailty still being in prehistoric times’](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/179758389461/this-feels-weird-to-me-since-in-my-dimension). He looked sideways at the [anime post just before that](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/179748566308/dream-diary), because _that_ contradicted the timeline there, and…

Bill shook his head. Whoever was writing the blog ( _thedappercornchip?_ \--Were they really another Bill? Or just some other pretender who wasn’t even _CLOSE_ to being him, let alone PRETENDING to be him? But they were beaming the signal in from another dimension, this wasn’t just some same-dimension ‘internet troll’ here, and they...) clearly knew the name of at least one of his Henchmaniacs...

…[make that two](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/179714917444/so-did-hit-thru-a-that-u-that-nice-how-you-look), with the previous post before that, and… could apparently get drunk...

Bill’s frown grew slightly, the more he read. Getting confirmation that [humanity didn’t exist yet](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/179712519211/can-you-shapeshift-into-wsndy-to-flirt-with-dipper) (and how would they know to look ahead in the first place to look at ‘all those other Bill Ciphers’? How was that other Bill even ABLE to do that?!? He himself had gone insane from doing so in such a way that he’d gone nearly one trillion years before feeling anything like up to trying again...) -- it felt like a frantically waving flag to him.

He [read about that Bill being a Flatlander](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/179501429626/so-bill-what-made-you-wanna-be-a-hermaphrodite), and… had to pause for a moment to consider how different things must have been there. Those didn’t sound like any of the genders he’d heard of, even accounting for possible linguistic translation errors…

Then Bill read [_’back when I was human’_](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/179479027329/you-know-those-ferrero-rocher-chocolate-things) and his eyes went wide.

“ _Demon_ ,” he murmured, feeling the skin of his body doing strange things, like it was trying to tighten up and squeeze him, or something. Because _that_ Bill hadn’t started out a _triangle_ , that Bill had _been a human before that_ , and _REMEMBERED IT_ , which meant that they were reincarnating on the _demonic cycle_ , and--

...and...

…wait. That Bill Cipher was TALKING to other Bills, not trying to kill them. They had written that they’d looked in on several other Bills to see what they did. The very LAST thing Bill would expect the full-on demon version of him to do would be to just LET THAT GO AND--

\--and--

\--oh. Oh no.

No no no.

AHAHAHA. AHAHAHAHAHA. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

That. That Bill. _That Bill that he had met._ That Bill that had _visited him_.

That shouldn’t have happened. That _really_ shouldn’t have happened. --The artificial barriers that he’d hypothesized must exist between dimensional sets really were finally breaking down.

In an infinite number of infinite dimensions, there should be repeats. Infinity was infinity. There was no reason for uniqueness. There should be an infinite number of divergences but, by the very nature of infinity, there should also be an infinite number of convergences, and also an infinite number of repeats.

QED. He couldn’t be the only Bill Cipher in existence. He _shouldn’t_ be the only Bill Cipher in existence. --He’d looked ahead, and saw _himself_ , except _he had never done that_ , and then…

Nothing. And then NOTHING. He’d never laid Eye on another Bill Cipher for almost one trillion years, let alone met another himself.

Not until two of them had crash-landed right in front of him outside of Stanley’s house.

Bill looked over the blogpost again and felt anger and sickness and something much, much worse.

The artificial barriers that he’d hypothesized must exist between dimensional sets were finally breaking down, _AND THERE WAS A REASON FOR THAT_.

The experiment was over. The Axolotl was done. It had figured out from them _whatever_ it had needed to figure out from spinning each and every one of them up and out. Making them. Creating them. Then _quarantining_ them from each other. Watching them.

Only, and ever, watching them.

Refusing to help them. Refusing to let any of them help _each other_. Stuck, with a prophecy, that was so unfair, that should have been impossible, that was _MADE_ to be impossible, that Bill had all-but-cheated outright to pull off -- no sure thing there -- to pull through despite all the odds against him, to _break free_ FINALLY and...

\--Was this Bill the last one? Or close to it? (It couldn’t be the full-on demon one, because demons killed anyone who dared take on the same name as their own. _Their_ name. _Theirs._ \--It _had_ to be unique, or they couldn’t be summoned properly. Because otherwise whoever was summoning them might get _any_ of the _other_...) --Had that stupid frilly lizard finally figured out whatever it was that it had been trying to figure out in creating them?! Each and every one of them!?!

It fit. IT ALL FIT.

Bill knew that there was a full-on DEMON demonic version of him. There HAD to be. He KNEW it.

He knew it from how so many of the demons he’d has to deal with had responded to and interacted with him. How they’d _laughed_. How they’d laughed about how he’d die when…

How they’d laughed at him and told him that he wasn’t the REAL Bill Cipher, absolutely _insisted_ upon it--

How they’d laughed in his face and called him a _**JOKE**_ \--

...None of them had survived challenging him, of course. Bill had made sure of that!

The problem had resolved itself somewhat once he’d started calling himself a _triangle demon_ , instead of a **demon**.

...which was more accurate anyway, Bill figured, so _WHY NOT?_ HAHAHA!

It had taken him so very long to piece it all together -- piece together a working theory that _worked_ , that MADE SENSE -- but he’d done it! Eventually. With a little help, and a lot of sideways-talk from some of his Henchmaniacs towards the end -- Pyronica in particular, that she-demon was the best of his worst! -- those final little tidbits of almost-nothing had absolutely clinched it for him.

He’d known that there must have been at least one other Bill Cipher out there, almost right from the very beginning, because of what had happened when… _well_. When he’d first tried to look at himself, down the timeline.

Though for a good long time -- at least, it had been a comparatively long time _at_ the time -- he’d gotten _that_ Bill Cipher mixed up with himself. (Until he hadn’t.) He’d thought that _he_ was _him_ , that _that_ was going to _be_ him, that he’d end up killing--

Well. He’d learned better. _Eventually._

(He had control now. That would NEVER be him.)

But what had happened with all those other demons… it had made it clear that something _else_ was going on.

Something that the Axolotl didn’t want him -- or anybody else -- to know about. Because the stupid thing kept removing the demons from the face of his existence! --Right as they they were about to say something truly INTERESTING, _every time_ , Bill was _SURE_ of it.

And time had proven him out.

The Axolotl had been trying to figure SOMETHING out, by spinning him up, Bill had hypothesized. Spinning each and every Bill Cipher up into existence, with all their similarities and differences, to figure something out. Something about that demon Bill. And this blogsite that he was reading… it didn’t read false.

That stupid lizard must have started trying to create its own demons -- even closer to what demons actually were -- only NOT by pulling in something from the outside. Instead, if what he was reading was not a lie, the stupid _smirking_ lizard had stuffed another person -- _a human_ \-- into another body -- _a Flatlander triangle_ \-- and called them Bill Cipher -- _had MADE THEM a **HIM**_ \-- AND THEN...

Bill shuddered and started reading through the blogsite as fast as possible. He needed to know what was going on, to get some sense from this younger him of what--

His mind came to a screeching halt when he read [_’meet Seb’s brothers’_](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/178443028918/what-were-the-odds-i-would-meet-sebs-brothers) and--

Bill stared at the screen of his phone.

He forced himself to _keep going_.

He saw [the picture of the door with an EXIT sign](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/178138775630/i-pushed-desks-and-shelves-in-front-of-the-door).

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/178037638918/i-miss-seb-%CE%B8).

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177863915436/sometimes-when-i-am-feeling-sad-i-remember-that)...

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177824627386/i-know-you-cant-sleep-but-since-your-all-knowing)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177816639446/it-was-fun-to-make-though-i-guess-you-wanted-me-in)...

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177675124121/leaving-before-the-younger-generation-replaced-the)...

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177616744056/the-twins-are-growing-so-fast-i-almost-wish)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177512803982/you-know-what-i-really-miss-about-being-a-mortal)...

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177478127453/experiment-take-over-year-50)...

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177408323431/sonic-here-again-m8-question-theres-any-way-of)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177405972141/so-pyronica-is-getting-to-the-last-weeks-of-her)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177371275872/this-my-dear-veiwers-is-a-sumjok-crystal-it)...

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177337223136/experiment-take-over-40-years-mark)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177267141719/experiment-takeover-planet-first-2-decades)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177231889884/i-heard-that-canonbill-likes-the-sound-of-rising)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177195958516/a-little-experiment)...

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177113093871/so-this-was-originally-one-of-my-posts-that)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177089554653/hlnvgrnvh-r-dlmwvi-ru-gslhv-lgsvi-nvh-gszg-r)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177054338454/bill-ranting-about-clients)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/177018849214/so-the-itching-has-been-getting-worse-and-ive)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176966484106/made-it-through-to-a-safe-spot-well-technically-i)...

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176946000418/ok-so-like-i-might-have-gotten-overly-excited-for)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176932061771/ugghhwe-went-out-to-a-fancy-restauranti-ate)...

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176867112021/if-all-goes-well-i-have-hectorgon-has-fixed-the)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176846839871/therere-some-technical-difficulties-on-my-end)...

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176825391006/my-eye-hurts-ive-been-trying-eye-drops-and-stuff)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176788608021/vrphwlphv-l-vols-lqwr-frgh-zlwkrxw-uhdolclqj-lw)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176779925621/pacifire-and-i-went-out-to-a-concert-not-one-of)...

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176735713926/its-time-for-bill-ranting-about-shitty-clients)...

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176718046656/bill-to-get-someones-goat-is-to-annoy-them-or)...

...and he remembered. What Sebastian had said when he and that other girl-Bill had first crash-landed into his dimension...

_“Miz! It’s the Shack!”_

...what he’d repeated later...

_“Miz? You spaced out.”_

...to the girl-him who had introduced herself to him as Bill Cipher.

And introduced herself to Shooting Star and Pine Tree as...

“Hello, Miz,” Bill murmured out loud to himself.

And he wondered, oh, he wondered, if she was the last one.

And he [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176707252796/wish-i-could-see-into-your-dimensionapparently)...

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176703133221/inkeris-inkeris-a-sketch-of-bill-with-ax-in)...

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176685391356/you-ever-just-got-so-tired-that-you-watch-other)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176653823266/alright-this-guy-this-handsome-motherfucker)... He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176629538136/hey-vouyerno-kinkshaming-intended-hows-your)...

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176622857686/so-likemy-best-friend-is-pregnant-and-its-been)...

He [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/176622309891/woo-finally-got-my-transdimensiontranstemporal).

And Bill smiled.

\---

_Hello, Bill. Or is it 'Miz'? Looks like you got yourself back to the right time and place, and left Seb -- HAHA! -- SOMEWHERE AND WHEN ALONG THE WAY?_

\---

He hit ‘send’ on the ask.

And then he shoved his phone back into his pocket.

\---

Later, Bill pulled out his phone again, wrote up a second ‘note’, and [posted it](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/179816798116/mv-geogqrrg-wxg-msbyj-aq-iawzh-bwo-agmfh-mim) with a key that only ‘Miz’ should know.

\---

_My Stanford was being an idiot, I’ll admit. But any of my idiots learning that there is more than one of us would have caused… PROBLEMS. More than letting that Stanford think I was possessing Seb. And Stanley was being stubborn about stupid things again -- WATCH OUT for that with YOURS!! But Stanford doesn’t know the difference between a binding circle and a hole in the ground, again before and still, I MADE SURE OF THAT. He couldn’t confine you to those constructs of yours, and Stanley wasn’t inclined to try._

_What happened with the stupid lizard, anyway? I called it, but I didn’t see it. Stanley said he saw you make the door, though, and go THROUGH it._

\--> Key: Axolotl dad <\--

_Mv Geogqrrg wxg msbyj aq iawzh, B’wo agmfh. Mim lqy rf jm trbzws oexfywgr whdt qvpfx tv mrrb hsog zqe rf rg hcnwg hdvb qlilpg… PUOYZPAL. Xrrh teoy zxewiqg qvlh Lednioor evbyn I zap dzglpvslnd Gpp. Tyg Swakzpm plv bhiku dhnmeoun xpzim dwusia hswgrv ajafb -- HOMNK OXT ccc halw wlte MZIKD!! Euw Sqoythcg drepb’e ygzz tke awqtxchnfe ysekxpq a eikrtbz nlrflb oyr t srlh ik hss zcruqd, xulwg mhfrrb oyr lello, I JOOS LFUE RF QVLH. Ap foxlab’e qhyiiqe vcf hh ekove zcygmcxcws lt jcncv, aqd Phlbepb wdsk’h tbvwlnhd qc efr._

_Hkaw hxdasgpg wlte hss lexpld iwkoko, dnbwxm? T qtwoeg iq, pfh B oldq’t psp wm. Dwaqlbm dobo ke vat mzi flne whb rzck, ekoxge, oyr zz WHUORUS wm._

\---

He glanced over at her blogsite again, and [saw](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/179816263136/hello-bill-or-is-it-miz-looks-like-you-got):

\---

_agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter asked:_

_Hello, Bill. Or is it 'Miz'? Looks like you got yourself back to the right time and place, and left Seb -- HAHA! -- SOMEWHERE AND WHEN ALONG THE WAY?_

_*squint*_

_Wait…is…is that you Bill? Omigosh!!! How did you get a transdimensional Tumblr account? Wait, what am I saying, this is YOU, of course you figured it out! How are you? Is your Ford still being a big stupid head?_

_Wait…that blog name…did you steal Mabel’s phone?_

\---

He pulled a slight face, but lost it to a smile again as he typed.

\---

_HA! ‘Bill? Who’s Bill? Not me! Just a girl who likes sweaters, pigs, and glitter here!’_

_Magic!_

_I’m alive, and more than 99% less covered in paper than the last time I HEARD you!_

_Stanford is being a human being, but yes, he is ALSO being an idiot. As usual._

_BORROWED. I BORROWED it. And CLONED it! The alcohol bottle you left behind was good for that, HAHA!_

_...You didn’t ANSWER my QUESTION, though._

\---

“Rude,” he said to himself at the last. But then, he wasn’t exactly surprised, either. Writing was harder than talking. He wouldn’t get angry or offended over something like that.

He didn’t lose his smile as he [posted the ‘reblog’](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/179817124736/hello-bill-or-is-it-miz-looks-like-you-got).

In reply, [he got back](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/179817269416/hello-bill-or-is-it-miz-looks-like-you-got)...

\---

_I dropped Seb off in his own dimension. Funny story, when his idiot brothers fell through the portal in his world, they ended up falling into MY Nightmare Realm. Ugh, I don’t know if my connection with his world being the last door I opened caused some kind of connection between our worlds._

_Hm…should probably check on that…_

\---

Bill pulled in a breath. This… was almost too many coincidences at once. Something was playing with the odds badly and baldly, here.

Stupid Axolotl.

\---

_That... ISN’T good._

_As far as I can tell, the BARRIERS that stupid lizard put up to ISOLATE Bill Ciphers from each other into separate dimensional sets are starting to COME DOWN NOW. I have some hypotheses on WHY -- but THAT ISN’T IMPORTANT right now._

_I wasn’t actually LOOKING for you when I FOUND this. I was TRYING to keep a lookout on another Bill! An angry and UNSTABLE one, as far as I can TELL. This one seems more like an other-Bill than a Bill. But. I DON’T KNOW for sure. I’m reading, and NOT TAKING SIDES, but--_

_If there’s a connection between YOUR world and Seb’s, you NEED to FIND IT NOW. If Seb’s already there, and he’s NOT WANTING TO LET THAT BILL OUT... Seb isn’t an other-Bill. He’s a Bill, even if he says he isn’t, HE IS. There are only A FEW reasons why a Bill would NOT want to let out another Bill, and NONE OF THEM are the FUN kind.__

\---

Bill hesitated, then added something truly dangerous to what he had written.

\---

_I’ve been working on ways to handle things if someone shows up on my doorstep, in my dimension, wanting a fight. But it’s slow-going. And there are counters. You DON’T want a FACE-TO-FACE fight with an other-Bill._

\--> Key: Axolotl dad <\--

_I’ss msxy zoukfbr cg hdyv tl vlbwwh tkikud wy drmhoks dvhhv us ok aj rhzuswem, wy ar olmhnpwzb, plqtlnd o qwzsw. Bxt fh’d gezz-griku. Lbw ekeue xfp qhfqthrp. Mzi WZQ’T zakh l TTNH-TR-FXQP tbrkt ziqv lb hekeu-Bfzw._

\---

Bill hit ‘reblog’, trying not to wince as he did so. He was taking a bit of a chance here… this girl-Bill could easily take that the wrong way, as a threat. Especially since, from what he’d read, she’d used to be human. Bill knew that he still didn’t have a good idea of everything his idiot Zodiac seemed to considered a verbal threat.

It was a calculated risk. Bill had a feeling that it was better that he know by FINDING OUT now, though. And better that ‘Miz’ know how _seriously_ he was taking things, if she _wasn’t_ yet.

\--She’d interfered with another Bill. _Directly_. If she wasn’t taking that seriously… even after intercepting Seb’s idiot brothers...

…

...wait.

_Idiot brother **s?!?!?!**_

That was--!!

Oh. Oh NO.

\--Yes, Bill had known and could remember that Sebastian had SAID that _Stanley_ was his brother -- and girl-Bill had referred to Seb as _“looking like Ford’s younger twin”_ \-- ...and girl-Bill had also said flat-out that “ _Sebastian is LITERALLY Stan and Ford’s triplet._ ”... -- but he’d been DISTRACTED by trying to come up with a working cover story for them, trying to traced down multiple possibilities in this mind, while they’d kept tossing out thing after thing that _wouldn’t work_. So the entire concept and the implications of the rest of it hadn’t really registered at the time…

(...quite possibly because he’d been in severe denial at the time, subconsciously _letting_ himself get mentally distracted by other things so as not to have the thought truly register and _fully sink in_ , and was now finally having to actually _confront_ the thought and _**all**_ the implications of…)

Ugh. Bill could not IMAGINE having STANFORD PINES as a… _brother that he would have actually had to have GROWN UP with_. _**\--UGH!!!**_

Bill was so disturbed by the notion that his stupid human-ish body literally _shuddered_ in place.

When he saw [the next response](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/179823952461/hello-bill-or-is-it-miz-looks-like-you-got) come in, he deciphered and read it quickly:

\---

_I just checked my door. It hasn't been opened but some of the items in the shelves I pushed in front of it have been jostled. I thought it was just me but…what if something has been trying to get in?_

\---

Bill blew out a breath -- at least he knew she’d read his previous message, since she’d used the same cipher to reply -- and got to typing.

\---

_The EXIT door’s in your Mindscape, YES? If you DON’T want or AREN’T READY to face it head-on -- I’M not even ready for that MYSELF, HA! -- you either need to THINK of something stronger than shelves to use, or just PILE ON the “weight” in the meantime. BRACE IT all up. If you think it can’t be moved, then it won’t move. It’s YOUR Mindscape.__

\---

Bill thought for a moment, then decided to bring up her creative side. Might as well try and make it a bit FUN too, right? Not all “DOOM and GLOOM” and stupid worry.

\---

_The EXIT door’s in your Mindscape, YES? If you DON’T want or AREN’T READY to face it head-on -- I’M not even ready for that MYSELF, HA! -- you either need to THINK of something stronger than shelves to use, or just PILE ON the “weight” in the meantime. BRACE IT all up. If you think it can’t be moved, then it won’t move. It’s YOUR Mindscape. --You can even set up ALARMS, if you want! Tripwires, deadfalls -- you name it!!__

\---

He thought for another long moment, then continued his earlier thought.

\---

_The EXIT door’s in your Mindscape, YES? If you DON’T want or AREN’T READY to face it head-on -- I’M not even ready for that MYSELF, HA! -- you either need to THINK of something stronger than shelves to use, or just PILE ON the “weight” in the meantime. BRACE IT all up. If you think it can’t be moved, then it won’t move. It’s YOUR Mindscape. --You can even set up ALARMS, if you want! Tripwires, deadfalls -- you name it!! --If you can THINK OF IT, you can DO it. As long as you THINK it’ll work, IT’LL WORK. It’s MIND OVER MIND, here, kid. You’ve got the LEVERAGE there!__

\---

Contingency plans next. She did ask a ‘what if’.

\---

_Even if it ends up MIND VERSUS MIND inside your little piece of the Mindscape, you’ve STILL got the leverage. Could get messy, maybe, but if you’ve got the WILL and the CONCENTRATION to SEE IT THROUGH, then you’ll be JUST FINE.__

\---

It was something he’d wished somebody had been able to tell him, when he’d been trying to figure things out on his own. --He’d shortcut everything he could for this younger him, if he could do it. Spiting that stupid lizard in the process!

He added next:

\---

_That wasn’t what I was thinking might be the PROBLEM.__

\---

Then hesitated. Because... it hadn’t exactly been WRONG for her to check there. Especially since it sounded like SOMEONE or SOMETHING _had_ tried to get in from what she’d written, and he’d read.

He didn’t want her to stop trying things like that. Thinking was good. How could he tell her that?

...She was human.

He typed...

\---

_That wasn’t what I was thinking might be the PROBLEM. But it’s good that you THOUGHT of that AND CHECKED.__

\---

Bill wasn’t entirely sure if he was doing that right. Stanley usually… _well_.

This felt… _odd_. It gave him an odd feeling. It felt familiar, almost -- but not the _Stanley doing this thing_ while-straight-up-TELLING-him-what-he-was-doing kind of familiar.

Hm. WELL.

Bill shook it off and kept going.

\---

_You had a DIRECT CONNECTION to Seb’s dimension for Seb’s siblings__

\---

Bill shuddered again, then kept typing.

\---

_You had a DIRECT CONNECTION to Seb’s dimension for Seb’s siblings to come through. That means that there’s a direct PHYSICAL connection between your ‘Nightmare Realm’ and his dimension. It MAY mean that that connection is PERSISTENT and ONGOING. You’ll want to check THAT, too.__

\---

Bill frowned.

Then he added:

\---

_Are Seb’s siblings back in Seb’s dimension yet? Because IF THEY ARE, then there’s MORE THAN ONE CONNECTION between your set of dimensions and his. Which means__

\---

Bill blinked.

\---

_Are Seb’s siblings back in Seb’s dimension yet? Because IF THEY ARE, then there’s MORE THAN ONE CONNECTION between your set of dimensions and his. Which means one of two things. --OR MAYBE MORE, HAHA!__

\---

Bill had to stifle a wince as he thought of _the second thing_.

\---

_ONE THING is that MAYBE that other-Bill has been MESSING AROUND with the connection, or MAYBE what you did with those doors kicked a few more HOLES IN THINGS to bring down those barriers faster, but there MAY BE one connection between YOUR ‘Nightmare Realm’ and Seb’s dimension -- and ANOTHER one connection between SOME OTHER dimension in your dimensional set and Seb’s dimension, if Seb’s siblings are back in his dimension again. That could make YOUR DIMENSIONS VULNERABLE in TWO DIFFERENT places._

_TWO THING is that MAYBE Seb and his siblings are from YOUR 3’rd dimension, and there’s some TIME STUPIDITY going on.__

\---

Bill really, really hated himself for typing this, but it had to be written.

\---

_TWO THING is that MAYBE Seb and his siblings are from YOUR 3’rd dimension, and there’s some TIME STUPIDITY going on. That would mean that YOUR and Seb’s dimensions have been CONNECTED ALL ALONG. --OCCAM’S CAT’S RAZOR-SHARP CLAWS, and ALL THAT. You’ve WRITTEN HERE that you’re not entirely sure about how your ‘other MEs’ work. ‘Are they sentient?’ ‘How much control do you really have?’ --So you split yourself sometimes, yes? And not JUST as some VISUAL EFFECT? Those ARE questions that you should FIND more than a few ANSWERS to. SOON._

_MAYBE it’s TWO THING. Maybe it ISN’T. But even if it COULD be that, it ISN’T that way YET._

_YOU DON’T KNOW what your prophecy is, yet. You haven’t DECIDED it YET, right?__

\---

The idea that this Bill got to write her own still make Bill _TWITCH_ , but in THIS CASE?? In _this case_ , that was GOLD.

\---

_YOU DON’T KNOW what your prophecy is, yet. You haven’t DECIDED it YET, right? --Things aren’t SET IN THE TIMELINE yet if you DON’T try to LOOK AHEAD. SO DON’T DO THAT. Things will GET MESSY in a BAD WAY. PROBABLY. YES. ALMOST DEFINITELY._

_DON’T DO THAT UNLESS YOU KNOW E-X-A-C-T-L-Y WHAT YOU’RE DOING._

_And EVEN THEN, DON’T DO IT.__

\---

Bill took in a deep breath, let it out, and typed:

\---

_I did that ONCE. THAT DID N-O-T GO W-E-L-L._

_THAT is how I ended up STUCK in a BURNING AND BURNED-DOWN DIMENSION._

_YOU can STILL DECIDE. So decide WHAT YOU WANT to do.__

\---

Bill grimaced, and looked at what he’d written grimly.

\---

_If you are MORE AFRAID of DEALING WITH an OTHER-BILL than BECOMING an OTHER-BILL, then you’ve got a VERY EASY WAY OUT._

_DON’T take the very easy way out.__

\---

No, he really shouldn’t say that.

What he should say is what he’d want to hear, even if he _wouldn’t_ want to hear it, too…

Bill tried very, very hard not to lie to himself. He had learned a long, long time ago that the only way that he’d ever stand a CHANCE of getting WHAT HE WANTED was to _not_ lie to himself. To _not_ be working off of faulty information. To understand what was _ACTUALLY GOING ON_.

And this girl-Bill ‘Miz’ was a him-that-was-him, even if she was younger. Even if some things were different. Most of it -- _enough_ of it -- _was_ the same. They both clearly cared about the same kinds of things. They could both help each other; were willing to help each other.

Bill would bet almost _anything_ that what they each-and-both wanted would NOT get in each other’s way, at the very _least!_

In fact, he _was_ betting EXACTLY THAT in writing to her at all, let alone writing what he was writing to her now.

So why would he lie to a ‘him’ that was _also_ him? Miz wasn’t an ‘other-Bill’ that was NOT him. And Bill had no reason to lie to himself.

So he didn’t lie to her.

\---

_I WANT you to NOT take the very easy way out. I want to NOT have to DEAL WITH you._

_GIVING UP would make you an OTHER-BILL! --And WHY would you WANT to GIVE UP? Giving up IS STUPID!_

_If you need help with ANY other-Bills, I CAN and WILL help you. Because helping you is like helping me, if you aren’t an other-Bill! --And YOU AREN’T! HAHA!__

\---

...At least, Bill _really_ hoped she wasn’t. _He_ wouldn’t ever decide to be an ‘other-him’, but… he’d at least _think_ of doing it. And she _was_ younger than he was, and had had the Axolotl LYING TO HER for at least 500 BILLION YEARS, and...

He hadn’t _THOUGHT_ he’d read her wrong, though. On this blog, or in-the-flesh, or in-the-dimension face-to-front-face.

He finished it off with…

\---

_TELL ME what you NEED._

\---

...and then encoded it [and posted it](https://agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter.tumblr.com/post/179846102336/tes-plbe-gorrp-wy-mhfu-mlnagnoip-bev-ic-mzi).

Because he could do better for her than that stupid frilly pink lizard, AND HE WOULD.

If she let him.

\---


	2. Chapter 2

\---

in re: to...

_I just checked my door. It hasn't been opened but some of the items in the shelves I pushed in front of it have been jostled. I thought it was just me but…what if something has been trying to get in?_

\---

The EXIT door’s in your Mindscape, YES? If you DON’T want or AREN’T READY to face it head-on -- I’M not even ready for that MYSELF, HA! -- you either need to THINK of something stronger than shelves to use, or just PILE ON the “weight” in the meantime. BRACE IT all up. If you think it can’t be moved, then it won’t move. It’s YOUR Mindscape. --You can even set up ALARMS, if you want! Tripwires, deadfalls -- you name it!! --If you can THINK OF IT, you can DO it. As long as you THINK it’ll work, IT’LL WORK. It’s MIND OVER MIND, here, kid. You’ve got the LEVERAGE there!

Even if it ends up MIND VERSUS MIND inside your little piece of the Mindscape, you’ve STILL got the leverage. Could get messy, maybe, but if you’ve got the WILL and the CONCENTRATION to SEE IT THROUGH, then you’ll be JUST FINE.

That wasn’t what I was thinking might be the PROBLEM. But it’s good that you THOUGHT of that AND CHECKED.

You had a DIRECT CONNECTION to Seb’s dimension for Seb’s siblings to come through. That means that there’s a direct PHYSICAL connection between your ‘Nightmare Realm’ and his dimension. It MAY mean that that connection is PERSISTENT and ONGOING. You’ll want to check THAT, too.

Are Seb’s siblings back in Seb’s dimension yet? Because IF THEY ARE, then there’s MORE THAN ONE CONNECTION between your set of dimensions and his. Which means one of two things. --OR MAYBE MORE, HAHA!

ONE THING is that MAYBE that other-Bill has been MESSING AROUND with the connection, or MAYBE what you did with those doors kicked a few more HOLES IN THINGS to bring down those barriers faster, but there MAY BE one connection between YOUR ‘Nightmare Realm’ and Seb’s dimension -- and ANOTHER one connection between SOME OTHER dimension in your dimensional set and Seb’s dimension, if Seb’s siblings are back in his dimension again. That could make YOUR DIMENSIONS VULNERABLE in TWO DIFFERENT places.

TWO THING is that MAYBE Seb and his siblings are from YOUR 3’rd dimension, and there’s some TIME STUPIDITY going on. That would mean that YOUR and Seb’s dimensions have been CONNECTED ALL ALONG. --OCCAM’S CAT’S RAZOR-SHARP CLAWS, and ALL THAT. You’ve WRITTEN HERE that you’re not entirely sure about how your ‘other MEs’ work. ‘Are they sentient?’ ‘How much control do you really have?’ --So you split yourself sometimes, yes? And not JUST as some VISUAL EFFECT? Those ARE questions that you should FIND more than a few ANSWERS to. SOON.

MAYBE it’s TWO THING. Maybe it ISN’T. But even if it COULD be that, it ISN’T that way YET.

YOU DON’T KNOW what your prophecy is, yet. You haven’t DECIDED it YET, right? --Things aren’t SET IN THE TIMELINE yet if you DON’T try to LOOK AHEAD. SO DON’T DO THAT. Things will GET MESSY in a BAD WAY. PROBABLY. YES. ALMOST DEFINITELY.

DON’T DO THAT UNLESS YOU KNOW E-X-A-C-T-L-Y WHAT YOU’RE DOING.

And EVEN THEN, DON’T DO IT.

I did that ONCE. THAT DID N-O-T GO W-E-L-L.

THAT is how I ended up STUCK in a BURNING AND BURNED-DOWN DIMENSION.

YOU can STILL DECIDE. So decide WHAT YOU WANT to do.

If you are MORE AFRAID of DEALING WITH an OTHER-BILL than BECOMING an OTHER-BILL, then you’ve got a VERY EASY WAY OUT.

I WANT you to NOT take the very easy way out. I want to NOT have to DEAL WITH you.

GIVING UP would make you an OTHER-BILL! --And WHY would you WANT to GIVE UP? Giving up IS STUPID!

If you need help with ANY other-Bills, I CAN and WILL help you. Because helping you is like helping me, if you aren’t an other-Bill! --And YOU AREN’T! HAHA!

TELL ME what you NEED.

\---

\--> Key: Axolotl dad <\--

\---

Tes PLBE gorr’p wy mhfu Mlnagnoip, BEV? Ic mzi WZQ’T zakh zf TCHN’W RBOOM mz iafe fh ssto-rn -- L’M kce sopq rhaam qck ekaw MVGPZY, SD! -- yru bwevxc qehd qc EVBYN oi slaphatqg vtocyuxc whdn pvpzopv tr ups, zf cfvt SIIS ZB msh “whidve” wg eke pexbewfp. ERDCB WE oew xp. Lf vcf hatqk lt zoy’h up poyea, hssg tw wrn’q azjx. Tw’s BORF Xwgovcdpb. --Mzi vlq eyek gph na DLDRJG, tt rzx wdnq! Hcwihlrhs, aslrylolv -- yli yofp lt!! --Lf vcf qty WHLNH CQ WM, jru fak RZ wm. Lv lrnd od mhf WHLNH we’ze hrrn, IQ’ZW KHCN. Iw’s JWYR HGHR PIKR, sskp, nig. Yli’gs zzw tke ISGSKLJE whbfp!

Sopq ii iq syrl fs MLNA JPFLFV MLNA wygboh yruo zthmwh plezs zt msh Mlnagnoip, box’vb GEWEW jow tes wsopuaje. Zcfzw rht pepgj, atjee, euq wq mhf’ye joq hss PTOL dna hss VZQCHNQFLHBZQ tr SBS TH MSUOXGE, hssg jru’ol ys UILE IIQE.

Qvlh plvn’w weoe W plv tkikytbz xlgkt ys evx AUOELBA. Mim tw’s jolr evte box TECFUAE rf whxh LBW NKEFKBR.

Jcn sdd d DFFPQM NRNQEZHTCG er Shb’p rtaxyvirn ccc Gxm’v slbiwyul er crmb hsfhfjh. Whxh xstyv tkaq hsskp’v a giosnh ISBSLCXZ ncgyhcwilb msmhheq ylic ‘Bbrktpaos Cstwp’ aqd ewd rbxhnvilb. Th FLB mhak hsom ekaw clbysveloq ip DPFLTVTHNQ oyr HYJOLND. Mzi’ew zaqt qc nvxnn TKAQ, hzc.

Tch Shb’p gtpetqgv bxqv wg Dhb’v dfapbltrn beq? Ppqtfve LF QVPM TCH, tkek hsskp’v MRRB HSOG ZQE FOKBPQMTRN eeqkpsg jruu sbh zt wtpeqsfcyg tyg hls. Tvtqa xhaqs lbp cy ezo whfbrg. --HC PABBB AZFX, SDHD!

OKS EVBYJ iv teoe ATJEE whxh zhapu-Blli vlg uphn PEPGTBZ LUOXNA ktha eke fokbpqmtrn, rr JOJPX hkaw yli oww hltk tecds wzrrv kfqvsw l iez mlfp VHWHS LN QVTBZD wo erfbr rhhq tkops mokcleus codhxc, euw tescs FLB BH oks ncgyhcwilb msmhheq YLIC ‘Bbrktpaos Cstwp’ aqd Psm’g wtpeqsfcy -- ogo DNRTESC cgp foqnbqewhy eewwbsy GHXH OWHBF owfpqslok wy mhfu dlmbbdwhydl veq oyr Lpe’s gijsygbzq, ii Sbp’d gbmoiqgp ocs ulfk ln ewd rbxhnvilb luttq. Tkaq qzieo pane VCFF WTPEQSFCYG OFONHRXPWS by WWR DFTQSKPQT slxqpg.

MHR TKIKU tg msdt PAVPP Gxm dng hfg dwuwlnjs xfp tkzp YRUO 3’fo rbxhnvilb, lbw ekeue’p gzax ELMH SQIAWWTWY jofbr cg. Ekaw wliwr fpdn whxh JCNC dng Sbp’d rbxhnvilbd vtgh bhek QZBGPFTHD XZW OEZQG. --RCZOX’G VLW’S UAWCC-GALUP FLXKD, ogo DLO TEOE. Mhf’ye ZRFHESG SHRH teoe mhf’ue qoq syhbchlb srfp ouzxt kot mzik ‘zwhhr JSd’ khcn. ‘Aue qvpm lpqtlekh?’ ‘Scp xxck clbefhw go bor fpoewb hdvb?’ --Gz mhf vpoiq mzikdhli slaphbxhs, bep? Oyr gzw JXSQ od ghxh VLSROW SYQHCW? Tecds TCH qxephtcgd whdt vcf gazxlg FFBO ahch tkak o qsp LQSZEOG ec. LZRN.

PAVPP wm’d WWR TEWYU. Flbbh iq WDB’M. Mxt hvbb tt be FOXLA pp halw, iw IPB’E halw wdy VSE.

MHF GOQ’T HBZK psdt borf afhakefy fg, jsm. Jru kassy’h WPFIGEA we MXE, uijhq? --Hswgrv auek’h DSM TQ TKE QWXSETQE beq wq mhf GOQ’T qfj hh WRON AESLR. LZ GOQ’T AC EVTE. Whlndg hwew JEW MBGDM by d BDD TOJ. DKZEAELV. MPG. TWPOVT ASQWGTWEOY.

ACY’H WZ WHDT RBWSLD BOX KKCH S-Q-L-F-T-O-Y TVLH RZX’RH DLWYU.

Tyg EYEK HSSG, ORN’W DL WE.

W wtg tkaq CYQX. EKAW DFR Y-C-M RR W-H-L-I.

HSOM tv hrw F syrxo xp VTRQV wg l EUUNFBR OGO EUUNBR-OCPY GIPEKGTCG.

JRU fak GEWEW GEFIAS. Dc wpfige TVLH RZX WDNQ hz rh.

Ti yru xfp AHCH AIRXWO cy OHAOIKU HWMS dn RTESC-PBWO tkak PPQHXLNJ ak CEVXC-EIOL, qvpb rzx’vh glh l JXCB EDSV KLM HFW.

I ZAKH jcn er NRT qovs msh vhrv slgr hdy ruq. W hoge wo QOQ vljx er DHAI KTHA jru.

JISWYU NA zoxla alyx jru dn LHSSK-MLLO! --Akr HVR hruod vcf KTYW tr GFJP II? Rlvlnd ia WL DWUSIA!

Wq mhf qehd eswd ptwh DNV cevxc-Eiolp, W NOG lqd ZIIZ ssea box. Bbqlilp keopfbr mhf ls oihs ssealnj mb, wq mhf drhn’q oy cmshr-Eiiz! --Lbw JRU DRBB’E! VTSD!

THLI AP kalw yru KSPR.

\---


	3. Chapter 3

\---

Bill was sitting in his usual sideways position on the couch-chair in the living room, Stanley sitting in it under him, as he checked for more messages later that night.

When he saw [the new post from Miz](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/179848037626/agirlwholikessweaterspigsglitter-tes-plbe), he blinked (not realizing that he was starting to smile slightly as he pulled up the webpage), then decoded it to read...

\---

_Well I've gotten better security now. The door is surrounded by stuffed animals armed with lightsabers and quantum destablizer-lite editions. There are tripwires all along the door rigged up to spray paint cans mixed with pineapple juice…along with a few other goodies. Any thing trying to get in is probably gonna regret it._

_Tye-Dye (a rainbow dolphin) is on alarm duty. She'll scream if the door so much as twitches so I'll be there if anything happens._

\---

“Sounds like good security,” Bill murmured to himself, then started up a repost and typed similar.

\---

_Better security is better! Not sharing all the details is a GOOD IDEA. Remember to TEST IT OUT once in awhile, to CHECK and MAKE SURE it hasn’t been suborned! HA!__

\---

Then something occurred to him and he added…

\---

_...Actually, that’s NOT FUNNY at all. Might want to add a check to make sure you CAN’T walk into your own TURNED ON YOU army._

_A screamer is one thing, and WATCHING THE DOOR is good. But you’ll want something to watch that something DOESN’T come in SIDEWAYS, TOO. MAYBE.__

\---

Bill scrolled back up and kept reading.

\---

_I've also started checking to see what might have connected mine and Seb's dimensions. While I was in Seb's world, I helped him fix his portal. Pretty sure that's what caused it._

\---

“Ugh,” Bill said, because that _would_ do it. He kept reading.

\---

_Not a problem. I have a few more dolls set up in the Nightmare Realm to alert ne if anything happens._

_Considering I helped Seb fix his portal, I'm sure he's already opened it to get his idiot brothers back. Haven’t found any holes in the Nightmare Realm, well, haven't found any interesting looking holes at least, this damn place leaks like a strainer…_

_If any of these holes DO lead to Seb’s dimension, they're too small to cause a problem. Erm…would this be a bad time to mention I went through a couple OTHER dimensions besides just Seb’s and yours? Well I haven't found anything more suspicious looking than usual here. I'll keep my Eye on it._

_I asked Ax if Seb was really my future and he assured me that he wasn’t. So that's ONE problem out of the way._

\---

Bill blew out a breath and settled in further. Typed:

\---

_No, that IS a problem. You interfered with AN OTHER-Bill’s Zodiac.__

\---

Then Bill grimaced and added.

\---

_...Probably. Apparently, SOME Prophecies could be V-E-R-Y different. Might want to ask your ‘dear old dad’ to tell you that OTHER Bill’s Prophecy. IF you can GET IT OUT of it.__

\---

“Wouldn’t hold my breath,” Bill muttered to himself, sinking lower where he sat. He continued to type:

\---

_Not sure how smart your dolls are. Might want to check how many there are at times, TOO, not just WAIT for an alert. NO ALERT doesn’t necessarily mean NOTHING HAPPENS. It could just mean that all your dolls GOT EATEN! HAHA!_

_Might want to check in on Seb, if you can without getting SEEN. Not sure how good you are at that.__

\---

It had taken Bill awhile to get not-noticed-ever, doing that. And he wasn't quite sure he could get away with that against another ‘him’ who might do things differently, at that.

Right now, Bill didn’t know what he didn’t know -- and that was _dangerous_ , Bill knew _THAT_ much, at least.

What he _did_ know, to be able to share, was that:

\---

_’Leaking like a strainer’ sounds like A PROBLEM, and small holes do get BIGGER. ‘LEAKING’ means that there’s LESS in the ‘Nightmare Realm’ TO LEAK. ‘LEAKING’ means ‘COLLAPSING MORE QUICKLY’!! If your ‘Nightmare Realm’ is connected to other dimensions by ‘SMALL HOLES’, then in MY understanding either one of two things will happen: those holes will close on their own (UNLIKELY), or those holes will get bigger and tear WIDER and WIDER until those other dimensions eventually COLLAPSE into the ‘Nightmare Realm’, and you get a lot more SPACE and TIME to PLAY WITH IN THERE!__

\---

Which, Bill gathered, was something he wasn’t entirely certain that Miz wanted to have happen. ...Frankly, he wasn’t sure how it hadn’t collapsed _already_ , with Miz away the majority of time, as he understood it, rather than stuck there and stuck maintaining it to stay ALIVE, but…

...then, he DIDN’T UNDERSTAND how she had somehow managed to CREATE A DIMENSION, either?!?!?

So he added a little bit of advice, as well:

\---

_Holes can be closed, and tears can be kept from widening any further than you WANT them to be, but that takes effort. You need to KNOW what you’re DOING. There are ways to PRACTICE, though.__

\---

Then Bill let out a sigh and added:

\---

_’NEVER’ would be a bad time to MENTION THAT, not ‘this’, so… no? HA!_

_HOW did you visit those OTHER dimensions? Did you make the doors yourself, or did you visit them DIFFERENTLY? --I’m still looking for “my” door, in MY MIND, but it’s been SLOW-GOING.__

\---

Bill paused, then added:

\---

_I don’t need a DIRECT SENTRY on any ‘door’. I have OTHER WAYS to handle any IDIOTS who might try to get into MY MIND. HA!__

\---

He’d been shoring things up lately. One of the things that being ‘human female’-ish had helped with was meditation. For some reason, male humans were just downright _terrible_ at it -- and not the _good_ kind of terrible, either!!

Yes, he’d not liked the idea of either of those other two ‘him’s trying to enter his Mindscape those scant few weeks ago, but that had been because he likely would’ve EATEN THEM ALIVE! (Or vice-versa, with his personal ‘Dreamscape’ still in such bad form.) And it would’ve happened reflexively, whether he’d have WANTED to OR NOT. Emphasis on the NOT.

And, because they were ‘him’s, they probably would’ve integrated a bit TOO QUICKLY, he had a feeling… (or vice-versa...)

The only thing he really had to worry about was the MESS that would have resulted from that.

...or ANYTHING ELSE trying to get in that was a ‘him’ but NOT ACTUALLY HIM. Those OTHER-him’s that he WASN’T, and NEVER WANTED to be.

He’d actually had to TONE THINGS BACK, a bit. To integrate the IDEA of ISOLATE AND RESTRAIN, not just SEARCH AND DESTROY, into his longstanding and HIGHLY-EFFECTIVE mental defenses.

...Stanley, admittedly, had A LOT of INTERESTING ideas.

And Bill was taking them. The idea of _restraint_ wasn’t exactly new to Bill. --He didn’t particularly LIKE it, but when the the alternative was potentially ACCIDENTALLY incorporating another version of himself who had a set of energy-wavelengths far too similar to his own, into his being almost reflexively, WHETHER HE WANTED TO OR NOT…

Bill was having to change his game up a bit, trying to incorporate the idea of having to handle other-Bills that were NOT him.

Bill wrote:

\---

_’Seb isn’t your future’ isn’t the whole of it. The stupid lizard LIES. I wouldn’t trust it. I DOUBT you would become Seb’s Bill unless you WANTED to be, though, so if you don’t want to be -- AND YOU DON’T -- then you WON’T. Which means YOU just PICKED A FIGHT with an OTHER-Bill. Seb’s Bill. Whether you WANTED TO or NOT. ...So THAT’S ‘a problem’ you just PUT in YOUR OWN WAY._

_The only question NOW is: WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?__

\---

Then Bill grinned.

\---

_HAHA! WELL, YOU’VE GOT NO REASON TO STOP NOW!!!__

\---

He smirked to himself as he read what came next.

\---

_Also, just for not telling me about how Dreamscapes work, I poked Ax a couple trillion times just to annoy the shit out of him while he was trying to sleep. HAH!_

\---

Bill let out a delighted “HA!!!” of his own, kicking his feet into the side armrest slightly in glee.

“Remembering _that_ one!” he crowed out, grinning, as he continued to read.

He barely even registered the hand that came down on top of his head, mussing his hair a bit, as he settled into the cushions further.

He didn’t realize at all that his own ‘stupid human-ish’ body relaxed a bit under the touch and the not-quite-grumbling attention, or how his own breathing slowed.

\---

_Ax says he'll give me my prophecy when I turn 1 trillion years old. Is that a milestone? Will I finally be an adult when I hit 1 trillion? I know I’m younger than a lot of Bills so perhaps? Ax hasn’t descided my prophecy yet and for the most part, Ive got an idea in mind that I've been discussing with him. Bill Cipher being defeated by the Pines family is a fixed point in most universes. So I just need to secure a way back to life that DOESNT end up with me ending up like poor Seb (torn in half with his memories half gone) or like you, no offense._

\---

“Eh,” Bill murmured. He typed:

\---

_Good luck with NOT getting called a ‘kid’ by anyone anymore, kid. Take it from SOMEONE WHO KNOWS, here: you don’t have much control over what OTHER PEOPLE or DEMONS call you, just what they DON’T CALL YOU ANYMORE because you’ve KILLED THEM ALL for SAYING IT, HA! SO, you can either IGNORE IT, or RUN WITH IT, your choice!! --My Stanley knows I’m one trillion years old and counting, and HE still insists on calling ME a kid. Says that humans define ‘adult’ differently. I don’t really get it yet._

_One trillion years was a milestone for ME -- it was when I GOT OUT! More or less. I remember screaming forever… TIME wasn’t really A THING for a while there, way back when._

_If your ‘dad’ isn’t going to give you your Prophecy until then, it may mean that your either BREAKING THE RULES so badly that it CAN’T come up with anything that will match you that far out to CONSTRAIN you -- in which case, GOOD JOB! HA! -- OR it’s actually trying to… look out… for you? And make sure it will match. BECAUSE you keep CHANGING? Or maybe YOU DON’T? FIT? YET?__

\---

“Hmmm,” Bill hummed as he thought, and blinked his eyes sleepily. (...because Stanley hadn’t really _stopped_ mussing with his hair, yet.)

\---

_You were HUMAN first, maybe THAT’S throwing it for a LOOP a bit. Humans are TRICKY...__

\---

Bill blew out a sigh, then blinked and shoved himself up a bit. He’d almost bent himself in two there.

He turned his head and twisted his body sideways to go with it, laying his head down on the arm’s rest with one arm pillowed beneath it. He held his “smart”phone close, one-handed, and he noticed when he felt Stanley’s hand come down on the side of his head and his hip, but didn’t really care one way or the other about it.

Stanley was just letting him know where his hands were, so Bill wouldn’t have to wonder whether Stanley was getting ready to stab him in the back with something or not. That was fine.

Bill blinked at what he read on the screen next.

\---

_I have not looked ahead into my personal future. I'm not THAT ignorant, so there's a lot I can do to work around it._

\---

“I was,” Bill muttered, as he typed.

\---

_Kid, you didn’t know about the Dreamscape. Your ‘dad’ would have had to KEEP you ignorant on A LOT of things to do that. I’D rather WARN you than ASSUME OTHERWISE and have you make the SAME MISTAKES THAT I DID. Because I WAS that ignorant, back then._

_DO work AROUND it, though.__

\---

Bill felt Stanley mussing his hair a bit -- he did NOT understand this human obsession with hair -- and let out a bit of an annoyed sigh.

He didn’t try to slap Stanley’s hand away, though. Then he wouldn’t know where his hand was.

And Stanley seemed to think that there was some ‘human touch’ thing that he might need, too, that other human bodies apparently needed. Shooting Star had been adamant about it, which had prompted Pine Tree to look it up and… well, he was unsure enough about it applying to _Bill_ that Stanley had decided ‘heh, better safe than sorry,’ and between a choice of Stanley and _Shooting Star_...

No contest there.

Might as well let him do it.

Bill let his eyelids slide shut for a moment, as he tried to step-aside from the physical sensation of touch somewhat, to push it down a bit, to ignore it as less-immediate, and think.

“Fixed point, fixed point,” Bill murmured to himself, and that made… more sense than what he’d thought before. It matched his ideas of ‘experiment’ a bit better. The stupid lizard didn’t _like_ demons; why wouldn’t it want to find a way to try and _corral_ them? That, no matter what they did, that certain things would always, ALWAYS HAPPEN in a certain way, at a certain time?

‘ _A different form, a different time._ ’

Bill blinked his eyes open. That was… far too general to be helpful, actually.

He typed:

\---

_There are PLENTY of ways to come back from DEATH or DEFEAT that DON’T require the STUPID LIZARD’S intervention. I went with the lizard. Or tried to. I wouldn’t be SURPRISED if Seb did as well. Or tried to. That stupid lizard HATES US as much as WE HATE IT. So maybe the trick is to NOT go CALLING ON the lizard._

_And maybe get yourself something a LITTLE more EXACT than just ‘a different form, a different time’.__

\---

“Chaos take it,” Bill muttered, then added:

\---

__**When it comes your time to burn,  
** Know that you, Bill, can return.  
But if you want to shirk the blame,  
You’ll have to invoke my name.  
You will have all you desire,  
Once I’ve plucked you from the fire:  
Home and help, Partners in crime,  
A different form, a different time._ 

\---

\--because he KNEW that not giving that girl-him what she NEEDED TO KNOW would come back to bite them ALL later.

He frowned to himself as he added:

\---

_Don’t let that stupid lizard do something like this to you. I DON’T think I was PLUCKED. I WOULD REMEMBER THAT. No plucking = no getting what you desire. ‘Invoking its name’ doesn’t mean that I get ‘to shirk the blame’; it’s just a PREREQUISITE. Apparently. Supposedly. So IT says. ...Assuming it isn’t just LYING OUTRIGHT about it._

_DON’T let it SNEAK IN any LOOPHOLES.__

\---

“Stupid lizard,” Bill said, not even bothering to keep it to a mutter that time.

He read:

\---

_I'm not gonna give up. Not when my friends need me. I've managed to get them to a safe place where they can live without any worry of a collapsing dimension and I've struck a couple Deals with Time Baby to ensure the Federation can't touch them._

_Also! Pyronica’s children are gonna graduate from school soon and her son started dating this really nice Jo-Adian girl._

\---

“Hm,” said Bill. Well, if he’d needed any proof that Miz’s Pyronica wasn’t a demon… that was it. Demons didn’t _have_ children. They _couldn’t_.

He typed...

\---

_You shouldn’t give up, EVEN IF your friends DON’T NEED YOU._

_It’s good that you’ve been taking care of them, though! HAHA!__

\---

‘Friends not needing you’ wasn’t an excuse to give up, it was a _reason_ to _fight for your life_. And taking care of one’s friends tended to ensure that they watched your back for longer...

...up until they eventually turned on you and you had to get new ones, but… his Henchmaniacs had actually lasted a good long time now, hadn’t they? Much longer than any of the others. Bill had actually started to think that they might NEVER turn on him…

...up until that conversation he’d had with Stanley. About not contacting them. Because…

Bill blew out a soft breath, closed his eyes.

Felt Stanley’s hands on his hip and his head.

He knew better. Stanley had had a point. _Several_ of them. And they were all very pointed and Bill had taken those points and ran with them, down the lines of thought until…

‘Point-taken’, indeed.

Bill reopened his eyes and kept reading.

\---

_Hey…getting a bit personal here…but after I lost my brother…I was ready to just give up and fuck everything because…what did anything matter anymore without him? But…I found Xanthar and Pyronica and the rest of them…they're my family now and I can’t fuck this up. Not just for me, but for them…you know?_

\---

Bill… frowned as he read this.

He typed slowly, as he tried to parse through what he was reading, that Miz had written.

\---

_What do you mean, you ‘lost’ your brother. Wasn’t he MURDERED?__

\---

And… not giving up, not ‘ _fucking this up_ ’, because of… her _family?!?_

\---

_No. I don’t know. You say you were READY to GIVE UP, but you DIDN’T..._

_You say you didn’t give up because of... your family…_

_The Henchmaniacs are… your FAMILY now?__

\---

Bill made a face. Because if they _were_ , then...

\---

_If they are, then… WHY WOULD YOU WANT THEM???__

\---

The only thing he could think of at all was… Stanley had said…

And Miz had STARTED OUT being…

\---

_Do you mean… the HUMAN definition of family?_

_Because there’s ‘family’, and there’s your brother. That’s… DIFFERENT.__

\---

“...Isn’t it?” Bill muttered, confused, because… had things been different for her?

Yes, Bill could remember way back when that Liam had told him that they were family -- that ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ were family -- but… Liam had been his brother. But his parents hadn’t… they hadn’t liked it when Liam had called them ‘mom’ and ‘dad’.

They’d called Liam ‘your brother’, not ‘our son’. Bill had been ‘their son’. The replacement.

He’d been William’s replacement. Fill a slot. Perfectly. Just the _right_ shape.

Not _wrong_ at all.

Not like Liam.

(...Except nothing had been _wrong_ with Liam at all. He’d been smart. Smarter than him. And how was Bill supposed to have filled in Liam’s shape, where Liam should be, once he was gone? Where Liam was _supposed_ to be, when NOTHING ELSE would EVER fit there but Liam himself? --HE NEVER SHOULD HAVE ‘LEFT’ AT ALL! _HE SHOULD HAVE FOUGHT!! **HE SHOULD HAVE--**_ )

And the parents Bill had been reassigned to his ‘family’ from had been… _nobody at all_ , as far as _that_ isosceles triangle and line had been concerned.

Door slammed in his face. Don’t speak to us. _Don’t come back_.

Bill had learned.

Bill was _good_ at learning.

He learned things. And he learned them _very_ quickly.

\---

_Your brother isn’t ‘family’. Your brother is YOUR BROTHER._

_’Family’ doesn’t care about you. ‘Family’ only wants YOU to care about THEM._

_Unless YOUR family was VERY DIFFERENT than MINE._

_Maybe they were._

_Communications impass, here, kid. Define your terms: family? friends? brother?__

\---

Bill grumbled to himself as he read further.

\---

_So thank you for helping me. If there's anything I can do to help you as well…us Bills have to support each other when we can right?_

_Thank you Bill._

\---

Bill blinked. Then he blinked again.

“Yeesh,” he said, feeling odd.

It took him more than a few moments before he typed:

\---

_You’re useful. And helping me is like helping myself, I TOLD you. No need for THANKS._

_You’re setting yourself up for OWING me something if you talk like THAT. Unless you WANT to owe me a FAVOR. I don’t recommend it._

_You’re GETTING AHEAD of THE GAME, BREAKING the RULES, and POKING the STUPID LIZARD. That’s good enough at being BAD ENOUGH for ME! HAHA!__

\---

He couldn’t really think of anything else he wanted to say at that, so he hit ‘send’.

And then he refreshed the page.

\---


	4. Chapter 4

\---

in re: to...

_Well I've gotten better security now. The door is surrounded by stuffed animals armed with lightsabers and quantum destablizer-lite editions. There are tripwires all along the door rigged up to spray paint cans mixed with pineapple juice…along with a few other goodies. Any thing trying to get in is probably gonna regret it._

_Tye-Dye (a rainbow dolphin) is on alarm duty. She'll scream if the door so much as twitches so I'll be there if anything happens._

_I've also started checking to see what might have connected mine and Seb's dimensions. While I was in Seb's world, I helped him fix his portal. Pretty sure that's what caused it. Not a problem. I have a few more dolls set up in the Nightmare Realm to alert ne if anything happens._

_Considering I helped Seb fix his portal, I'm sure he's already opened it to get his idiot brothers back. Haven’t found any holes in the Nightmare Realm, well, haven't found any interesting looking holes at least, this damn place leaks like a strainer…_

_If any of these holes DO lead to Seb’s dimension, they're too small to cause a problem. Erm…would this be a bad time to mention I went through a couple OTHER dimensions besides just Seb’s and yours? Well I haven't found anything more suspicious looking than usual here. I'll keep my Eye on it._

_I asked Ax if Seb was really my future and he assured me that he wasn’t. So that's ONE problem out of the way. Also, just for not telling me about how Dreamscapes work, I poked Ax a couple trillion times just to annoy the shit out of him while he was trying to sleep. HAH!_

_Ax says he'll give me my prophecy when I turn 1 trillion years old. Is that a milestone? Will I finally be an adult when I hit 1 trillion? I know I’m younger than a lot of Bills so perhaps? Ax hasn’t descided my prophecy yet and for the most part, Ive got an idea in mind that I've been discussing with him. Bill Cipher being defeated by the Pines family is a fixed point in most universes. So I just need to secure a way back to life that DOESNT end up with me ending up like poor Seb (torn in half with his memories half gone) or like you, no offense._

_I have not looked ahead into my personal future. I'm not THAT ignorant, so there's a lot I can do to work around it. I'm not gonna give up. Not when my friends need me. I've managed to get them to a safe place where they can live without any worry of a collapsing dimension and I've struck a couple Deals with Time Baby to ensure the Federation can't touch them._

_Also! Pyronica’s children are gonna graduate from school soon and her son started dating this really nice Jo-Adian girl._

_Hey…getting a bit personal here…but after I lost my brother…I was ready to just give up and fuck everything because…what did anything matter anymore without him? But…I found Xanthar and Pyronica and the rest of them…they're my family now and I can’t fuck this up. Not just for me, but for them…you know?_

_So thank you for helping me. If there's anything I can do to help you as well…us Bills have to support each other when we can right?_

_Thank you Bill._

\---

Better security is better! Not sharing all the details is a GOOD IDEA. Remember to TEST IT OUT once in awhile, to CHECK and MAKE SURE it hasn’t been suborned! HA!

...Actually, that’s NOT FUNNY at all. Might want to add a check to make sure you CAN’T walk into your own TURNED ON YOU army.

A screamer is one thing, and WATCHING THE DOOR is good. But you’ll want something to watch that something DOESN’T come in SIDEWAYS, TOO. MAYBE.

No, that IS a problem. You interfered with AN OTHER-Bill’s Zodiac.

...Probably. Apparently, SOME Prophecies could be V-E-R-Y different. Might want to ask your ‘dear old dad’ to tell you that OTHER Bill’s Prophecy. IF you can GET IT OUT of it.

Not sure how smart your dolls are. Might want to check how many there are at times, TOO, not just WAIT for an alert. NO ALERT doesn’t necessarily mean NOTHING HAPPENS. It could just mean that all your dolls GOT EATEN! HAHA!

Might want to check in on Seb, if you can without getting SEEN. Not sure how good you are at that.

’Leaking like a strainer’ sounds like A PROBLEM, and small holes do get BIGGER. ‘LEAKING’ means that there’s LESS in the ‘Nightmare Realm’ TO LEAK. ‘LEAKING’ means ‘COLLAPSING MORE QUICKLY’!! If your ‘Nightmare Realm’ is connected to other dimensions by ‘SMALL HOLES’, then in MY understanding either one of two things will happen: those holes will close on their own (UNLIKELY), or those holes will get bigger and tear WIDER and WIDER until those other dimensions eventually COLLAPSE into the ‘Nightmare Realm’, and you get a lot more SPACE and TIME to PLAY WITH IN THERE!

Holes can be closed, and tears can be kept from widening any further than you WANT them to be, but that takes effort. You need to KNOW what you’re DOING. There are ways to PRACTICE, though.

’NEVER’ would be a bad time to MENTION THAT, not ‘this’, so… no? HA!

HOW did you visit those OTHER dimensions? Did you make the doors yourself, or did you visit them DIFFERENTLY? --I’m still looking for “my” door, in MY MIND, but it’s been SLOW-GOING.

’Seb isn’t your future’ isn’t the whole of it. The stupid lizard LIES. I wouldn’t trust it. I DOUBT you would become Seb’s Bill unless you WANTED to be, though, so if you don’t want to be -- AND YOU DON’T -- then you WON’T. Which means YOU just PICKED A FIGHT with an OTHER-Bill. Seb’s Bill. Whether you WANTED TO or NOT. ...So THAT’S ‘a problem’ you just PUT in YOUR OWN WAY.

The only question NOW is: WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

HAHA! WELL, YOU’VE GOT NO REASON TO STOP NOW!!!

Good luck with NOT getting called a ‘kid’ by anyone anymore, kid. Take it from SOMEONE WHO KNOWS, here: you don’t have much control over what OTHER PEOPLE or DEMONS call you, just what they DON’T CALL YOU ANYMORE because you’ve KILLED THEM ALL for SAYING IT, HA! SO, you can either IGNORE IT, or RUN WITH IT, your choice!! --My Stanley knows I’m one trillion years old and counting, and HE still insists on calling ME a kid. Says that humans define ‘adult’ differently. I don’t really get it yet.

One trillion years was a milestone for ME -- it was when I GOT OUT! More or less. I remember screaming forever… TIME wasn’t really A THING for a while there, way back when.

If your ‘dad’ isn’t going to give you your Prophecy until then, it may mean that your either BREAKING THE RULES so badly that it CAN’T come up with anything that will match you that far out to CONSTRAIN you -- in which case, GOOD JOB! HA! -- OR it’s actually trying to… look out… for you? And make sure it will match. BECAUSE you keep CHANGING? Or maybe YOU DON’T? FIT? YET?

You were HUMAN first, maybe THAT’S throwing it for a LOOP a bit. Humans are TRICKY...

Kid, you didn’t know about the Dreamscape. Your ‘dad’ would have had to KEEP you ignorant on A LOT of things to do that. I’D rather WARN you than ASSUME OTHERWISE and have you make the SAME MISTAKES THAT I DID. Because I WAS that ignorant, back then.

DO work AROUND it, though.

There are PLENTY of ways to come back from DEATH or DEFEAT that DON’T require the STUPID LIZARD’S intervention. I went with the lizard. Or tried to. I wouldn’t be SURPRISED if Seb did as well. Or tried to. That stupid lizard HATES US as much as WE HATE IT. So maybe the trick is to NOT go CALLING ON the lizard.

And maybe get yourself something a LITTLE more EXACT than just ‘a different form, a different time’.

When it comes your time to burn,  
Know that you, Bill, can return.  
But if you want to shirk the blame,  
You’ll have to invoke my name.  
You will have all you desire,  
Once I’ve plucked you from the fire:  
Home and help, Partners in crime,  
A different form, a different time.

Don’t let that stupid lizard do something like this to you. I DON’T think I was PLUCKED. I WOULD REMEMBER THAT. No plucking = no getting what you desire. ‘Invoking its name’ doesn’t mean that I get ‘to shirk the blame’; it’s just a PREREQUISITE. Apparently. Supposedly. So IT says. ...Assuming it isn’t just LYING OUTRIGHT about it.

DON’T let it SNEAK IN any LOOPHOLES.

You shouldn’t give up, EVEN IF your friends DON’T NEED YOU.

It’s good that you’ve been taking care of them, though! HAHA!

What do you mean, you ‘lost’ your brother. Wasn’t he MURDERED?

No. I don’t know. You say you were READY to GIVE UP, but you DIDN’T...

You say you didn’t give up because of... your family…

The Henchmaniacs are… your FAMILY now?

If they are, then… WHY WOULD YOU WANT THEM???

Do you mean… the HUMAN definition of family?

Because there’s ‘family’, and there’s your brother. That’s… DIFFERENT.

Your brother isn’t ‘family’. Your brother is YOUR BROTHER.

’Family’ doesn’t care about you. ‘Family’ only wants YOU to care about THEM.

Unless YOUR family was VERY DIFFERENT than MINE.

Maybe they were.

Communications impass, here, kid. Define your terms: family? friends? brother?

You’re useful. And helping you is like helping myself, I TOLD you. No need for THANKS.

You’re setting yourself up for OWING me something if you talk like THAT. Unless you WANT to owe me a FAVOR. I don’t recommend it.

You’re GETTING AHEAD of THE GAME, BREAKING the RULES, and POKING the STUPID LIZARD. That’s good enough at being BAD ENOUGH for ME! HAHA!

\---

\--> Key: Axolotl dad <\--

\---

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Pijhq klbm er ckezy tb hy Vee, ic mzi vlq wltecfh zpwtlnd GPSG. Yrt vuos scp rrog yli lfx lw tkaq.

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’NHVBF’ hcnwg bh a yoo hbxh tr MBBEWHY WHDT, kce ‘hatv’, sr… nl? VL!

VHH gig yli gwltw tkops ZHAPU dlmbbdwhyv? Dld vcf atvh tke aczfl jruusbzq, ck old bor jtgbe whhm AWQTXCHNWLV? --W’x gmtol oolytbz qrr “py” aczf, by PY PIKR, mim tw’s eebb DZHH-JOLND.

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Hap rnoy nipgmtrn QOT wd: KALW AUE VCF UHTQG WO AC LPHFW IW?

HXVL! KXWO, YRU’SS RCM YR RHAPCY HH DWOS NLK!!!

Rcho oufk twev GZW ghtqwyu vlolhd x ‘ytr’ uj dnboks lbrxrrh, kfr. Eodp lt irla DCFPRNH WEC VBHHV, hhrb: mzi wzq’t kass xivs foqtocw copu wkaq CEVXC SERPIS zf WPPOQS zowz rzx, jxsq ksom ekeb DLB’E QTWO YRU XBJAHCH bhcxids rzx’vh KFZWSW EKEP AIZ qck DDYLND WE, VT! DR, yru zoy sbekeu IDBZFX TW, ou RRB HWMS LT, borf nvhtfe!! --Py Phlbepb kqotg T’a hyh tuiiztcg jhaus lzo ogo foxnqwyu, tyg HH sqwwz byvivtp cy qtwoiqg JS l ybo. Vabs qvlh afpaqs asqwgp ‘ddxlq’ rttypueqtim. T rhy’w rhaizj uxe lt beq.

Cys mclloilb jstcv wds x atzxdwoqe ccc AX -- tw wds tvpb B RRT RUQ! Azfx zu lhsp. W csfppbhr pqcstxlnj flfpjxc… WIPE todb’m chaolv O EVBYJ frr x kswep whhrb, klm ulfk zhbb.

Tt rzxr ‘gaa’ wdb’m rriqg qc rwop box ylic Dkzshhcv iyhbw whhn, fh xor xhaq teoe mhfu eltesc PKPDKLND HSS KFOEV sl plrej whdt fh NOG’E fope rd hwms dnbtewyu msdt ziiz xomnk yru qvlh ylu oxt qc NCGDWRDIK mzi -- by zhlce qlgx, RROG JLP! SO! -- HC lt’v azhfoewb tuyfbr hh… wron orh… qck jru? Dna alyx dxrh iq ktze xdtfh. YSNONDH yru hspd VSDNJIKU? Zf flbbh YLI OCG’E? IIW? YBH?

Jcn hhrh HRALB ytusw, mxmms MSDT’V tefzkbyj iw flf l ZHZS a eiq. Vfatyv aue QFTQDJ...

Nig, yli owwy’w kqot omcne whh Doslalndph. Ylic ‘rto’ zoxla vljx sdd wo HSPD rzx ijnlflbm zq A OOQ cq hatqgv tl rz halw. I’G rxhssk HDRQ yli evty DSVUJS ZHAPUWLSB oyr alye bor alyx eke VAJS XWLEDKHS QVLH B OLD. Eezofgx T ZAV teoe wzyrrdnq, plqd ekeq.

DL kzfd LUOXNA we, hazxgk.

Tescs tch POEKHJ cy hdyv tl qzax mdcn focx RXLWH rr ASQSTE whdt ACY’H kptulrb hss LEXPLD IWKOKO’V iqtbfgsgeloq. I tsyh ptwh whb ztntcg. Ou towpr mz. L wruiry’h up VUUPOWDSW ti Shb awo ol hhlo. Oo hcwxo wo. Whxh dhnald oiwocr ALWEV UP od annk av WB VLHX TW. Sr mxmms msh tuizy tg mz QOW gl QLZETQG RN qvp zbkdrg.

Akr xormh ght vcfflpof vojsevbyj a OIQHWS fzue HXXQE halq jxsq ‘o owyqhrhnq tzff, l giifbfpbm elmh’.

Wesy wm nrmhs vcff mtpe wo yicb,  
Dyrw whxh jcn, Mllo, cxb csmfun.  
Euq wq mhf zaqt qc dvbcn tke yzlax,  
Jru’ol eogs mz lnyohs xm glpe.  
Bor ktze sdvh aiz jcn ohslrb,  
Cyqx T’ye slrqvsw jru irla evx qlrh:  
Hlap ogo keop, Mochgpus ln zftax,  
L giifbfpbm qrrp, a awqtxchnw tfap.

Rhy’w lht qvlh lexpld iwkoko go vojsevbyj llkb hswl er yru. F RZB’M ekiqk F klg IWXCNEA. W HCNWG RHMBAMSK EKAW. Nl dwivvlnj = nl uphmtqg zhxh jcn ohslrb. ‘Wyjhvlnj iqg yofp’ gohsk’h xsty whdt F uph ‘mz vhlrh hss uwdmh’; iq’g uile d PUEOSBIBDLTH. Amdlfxywlb. Srdaclpglb. Sl WE gtjv. ...Avsratbz tw ivn’q xfgm WBIQG LIEFBRKT dblie wm.

ORN’W lbh th LYHAN IK oym EZRPKOISD.

Mhf vhruiry’h ztye xp, BJPB BQ boxr cftsgov DRN’Q BPSW JRU.

Lt’p uzcw ekaw yli’gs uphn wahwyu vlue rf qvpa, msrujh! EOSO!

Psdt go vcf axlq, yru ‘icdh’ rzxr erlhssk. Hdsq’t es XIKOHRHD?

Kc. T rhy’w kqot. Mzi llb yru tscs KPDDB tl UTJX FS, bxt vcf RBOQ’T...

Bor glm rzx dldk’h rwop xp eezofgx zi... yruo tlabwb…

Tke Esyqaxdnlazg lfx… jruu FXATZR yrw?

Lf qvpm tch, tkek… KSM PZXLG YLI HOGE WHHM???

Ac jcn xhaq… tes SIFLQ dhffbthbzq oi fxatzr?

Mhcdups evxch’s ‘iajwwm’, tyg tkeos’d mhfu buoqvpf. Msdt’v… DFTQSKPQT.

Borf mfhekeu ipb’e ‘ttxllb’. Ylic pkzwhhr fg JCNC ERRTESC.

’Ttxllb’ dlsdb’m ndrh aycfh rzx. ‘Fdmfzj’ cgwb wdnqg JCN er cdrb omcne WHHM.

Rbwsld BOXR coxwej zav VBFJ RBQIEUEKH evty PIQE.

Jojpx ekeb wbfp.

Qhxpuqizoewhyv ippxgd, vxch, kld. Asqwgp boxr qscal: qdmllv? tcwxygs? erlhssk?

Jru’ue rgptnw. Dng hbzawgr box ip ztyx shlsiku xmlpof, L TLZO mhf. Qo qebr qck EKAQKP.

Mzi’kp vewtfbr mhfushlc ia thc RWLND ap ghxhtkiku tt rzx tdlh ztyx EKAW. Ukzpgl jru ZAKH ec hhh mh a COGCK. T goq’t osncfxhng iq.

Mzi’kp JEWTFBR OAPDD rf QVP UTXH, BUEXYTBZ eke UUISD, ogo SONIKU evx DWUSIA ZTNTCG. Tkaq’g rcho hnrudv lh uplnj BXR PBHFJH ioo AP! VTSD!

\---


	5. Chapter 5

\---

Bill blinked as he refreshed the blog, and realized that… there was a lot of new subject matter all of a sudden.

“Definitely not time-synched,” Bill murmured.

So Bill got down to it, and next read [a post that](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/179855596696/disney-movies-summarized) had him frowning, because… _well_.

\---

_Disney movies summarized_   
_Cinderella_

_A story of a girl who escaped her abusive household because she wasn’t afraid to ask for and accept help from her friends who loved and cared for her._

_Also Fey magic. Frankly I wondered why she didn’t simply wish her step-family into toads or something but eh~_

_#its not weak to ask for help #its not shameful to NEED help #Sometimes you cant rescue yourself #and you shouldnt be afraid to let others rescue you #illusion is reality #though often times Pride will get in the way #heck I dont want to rely on others either #but it is awful #and fighting alone is not strong #it is not the 'right thing to do' #because no one is perfect #we all have our weird shapes and angles that work for some situatiins but not all #so we have friends who are shaped just different enough that they can fill in the parts where yoyr shape cannot #find those weird shaped friends #appreciate them #and be that weird shape that someone else needs in their life_

\---

“Seriously?” Bill muttered.

He typed:

\---

_You CLEARLY don’t know your humans VERY WELL, HAHA! --It’s called REVENGE, kid. MOST HUMANS WANT IT! Some of them even GET IT! Can we say, “red hot irons for shoes” and “rolling downhill in a barrel spiked with nails?” HAHAHAHAHA!_

_Yeesh, you say that like you think fey magic is good for more than A COUPLE HOURS of SNAPPY DRESSING. How would wishing her step-family into being TOADS for SIX HOURS help her out? --Maybe a FILE for those CHAINS, but would a FAIRY be able to handle COLD IRON? I THINK NOT!_

_That girl had a good head on her shoulders, and a good set of PICKS for all those CHAINS AND LOCKS. And once she was “free”, the choice was hers: HEAD for the BALL and CAPTURE A PRINCE or HEAD FOR THE HILLS? Kind of a NO-BRAINER, THERE!_

_Try making it a league on CUT GLASS SHOES with a ‘stepmother’ who calls you a RUNAWAY SLAVE with a full COURT wrapped around her FINGERS? HA! GRAB that PRINCEY yourself. SANCTIONED-BY-CROWN DEATH is where it’s at, kiddo!_

_Not sure I’d call TRAINED MICE ‘friends’, but I guess it beats a certain IDIOT HANDS-DOWN most days of the week, HA!__

\---

He hesitated a moment, reading the “tags”.

Then added:

\---

_...”shameful to need help”, ha. “Shameful to ask for help”? --Only when you KNOW that NO ONE IS E-V-E-R GOING TO HELP YOU! HA!__

\---

...and hit the ‘repost’ button.

Bill skim-read a few others, ‘liked’ [a post](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/179924407679/how-do-you-feel-about-being-shipped-with-people) where Miz commented about being worshipped -- always something that should be encouraged! -- and… ‘liked’ [a second post](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/179958137038/speaking-of-my-human-forms-the-one-i-named-miz) about being worshipped, while also responding as a ‘link post’ with:

\---

_https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/179958137038/speaking-of-my-human-forms-the-one-i-named-miz_

_HA! Sounds similar to how SS talks about “CUTENESS”!_

\---

...just to keep it a bit shorter.

He frowned as he read the [back and forth](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180013765226/askreformedbill-thedappercornchip-i-am) between Miz and some other… person… who he could only assume was a human _pretending_ to be a Bill, since he hadn’t found any other connections from outside that dimension…

...unless he’d missed something somehow…

...and he ended up typing again, responding to Miz…

….via another ‘link post’, to cut the “other Bill” (“reformed”?!?!?!? _really?!?!_ ) out of the conversation, **intentionally**. Just in case.

Because that ‘Bill’ didn’t seem like one that he was particularly interested in talking to or with, for any reason. (“Reformed.” _Yeesh._ )

\---

_https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180013765226/askreformedbill-thedappercornchip-i-am_

_WELL. THAT READS… DIFFERENT. AND NOT._

_You had BALLISTAS? ...Did they fire SIDEWAYS? Were they… ASYMMETRIC?_

_Your ‘2nd dimension’ reads VERY different than MY home was._

_The everything-burning and screaming-forever and eventually-managing -to-put-out-the-flames reads FAMILIAR, though...__

\---

The whole idea of… _ballistas_ made his head ache, honestly. Because Bill’s dimension had been… _flatter than flat_. And weren’t ballistas supposed to fire UP?? ...Not to mention that Bill couldn’t visualize a symmetric ballista that WOULDN’T take out members on BOTH SIDES of a war USING them. A USEFUL ballista would have to be asymmetric. But asymmetry had been a short road to death or deconstruction in his dimension.

Their brother’s names were even… a bit different? ‘Will’ as short for ‘William’, instead of ‘Liam’. And ‘Will’ had died… _fighting?_ **WHAT??**

Bill let out a whistle-click at the thought. Because _that_ was a difference, right there, if he was understanding her written-thoughts right.

Then he read… “600 billion?” And wrote:

\---

_600 BILLION YEARS? AHAHA! You’re growing up FAST, kid!__

\---

...because hadn’t she been 500 billion when she’d been here in the fleshy-flesh?

He grinned and hit send.

Seeing the ‘ask’ on height, [and Miz humoring the poor idiot](https://thedappercornchip.tumblr.com/post/180030137544/bill-default-size-of-5-feet-long-on-each-side), he thought to correct the trend a bit with a reblog with a bit of an ‘educate yourself’ bent:

\---

_What is every IDIOT’S obsession with HEIGHT? --THIS, THIS is why GRAVITY should be OPTIONAL!_

_\--AMONG OTHER REASONS!_

_In MY HOME dimension, HIERARCHY was one of the BIGGEST PROBLEMS we had. Which is just another BROKEN CONCEPT for HEIGHT. GET RID OF THAT, and you’ll FIX A LOT._

_(WHAT’S WRONG with having a LEVEL PLAYING FIELD? HUH?)_

_BREADTH and DEPTH are MORE THAN ENOUGH to UNDERSTAND most EVERYTHING._

_COLOR is BETTER. MUSIC makes it MORE SO._

_...FOCUSING on HEIGHT. YEESH!_

\---

And, after Bill hit the ‘reblog’ button, he heard…

“‘Six hundred billion’ _what_ , kid?”

Bill blinked.

And he twisted in place to stare up at Stanley Pines face.

“What?” Bill said, blinking, then he frowned because-- “Were you READING WHAT I WROTE?!”

“Nah, kid,” Stanley told him good-naturedly, giving him an… _amused_ look?... as Bill sat up rigidly and pulled the “smart”phone in towards him protectively, smashing the screen-side close-in against his stupid human-ish chest. “You’ve been muttering to yourself the whole time you’ve been typing.”

Bill felt his stupid human-ish face heat up. “That was PRIVATE loud muttering,” Bill complained at him.

“Heh,” said Stanley.

Bill glared at him. “PRIVATE LOUD MUTTERING,” he repeated.

“Yeah, yeah,” Stanley said, dropping a hand down onto his head to muss with his hair again.

Bill let him. Without complaining. _Much_. In English.

Luckily, Stanley couldn’t understand his native language, so the annoyed clicks and clacks he let out _clearly_ went under his hearing-aid’s... aid. Or Stanley would’ve complained at his use of as-close-to-cursing-as-you-could-get-in-pure-mathematics. (Which was _very_.)

“You didn’t answer his question,” was the next thing Bill heard properly, after Stanley had stopped with his hair-mussing, and Bill shifted his eyes sideways to glare over his shoulder at Stanford, who was sitting at the kitchen table, eating some dumb inedible thing. Ew.

“ _Yes he did!_ ” Bill said, defending Stanley from Stanford’s lies staunchly, because Stanley _had_ answered him!

Bill saw Stanford blink.

“I meant you,” that Stanford said next.

“You meant me what,” Bill said suspiciously.

“He meant you didn’t answer Grunkle Stan’s question about the ‘600 billion’,” Bill heard Pine Tree say -- from down on the floor a few feet away, Bill realized, as he swiveled his head around to see where the human-words-noise was coming from.

“Yes,” said Bill. “What’s your point?”

Pine Tree gave him a long look.

Bill gave him a long look right back. --Two could play at _that_ game! HA!

“Kid,” said Stanley, and Bill swiveled his head on his neck to face him eyes-to-eyes once again. “Are you writing to anyone new on that thing?”

Bill blinked at him. “New?” What, like infants? Babies couldn’t type! “--Define ‘new’.”

“That you weren’t writing to before, the last time I asked you about who you were writing or talking to on that thing,” Stanley said… patiently?

“Oh. ‘ _New_ ’.” Bill blinked. “Yes.”

“Thought so,” Stanley told him with a smile, and Bill frowned at him.

“...What do you mean, ‘thought so’,” Bill asked suspiciously, squinting his eyes at him. _Was_ Stanley reading what he’d been writing after all, from behind his back!?

“Kid, you’ve been smiling almost nonstop all afternoon while you’ve been typing on that thing,” Stanley informed him, and Bill put a hand to his mouth, trying to feel it. “Earlier,” Stanley elaborated -- which matched his lack of upturned lips, at least.

“That doesn’t mean I was writing to someone _new_ ,” Bill replied, with a huff, dropping his hand away from his mouth.

“It does when Mabel hasn’t told me you’re ready for me to walk you through packaging what you say to people online,” Stanley told him.

“He’s still the best worst internet troll in the world!” Shooting Star informed Stanley for him cheerfully.

“HA!” Bill enthused, because he _liked_ being the worst!

“Uh huh,” said Stanley. “Thought so. --Kid, you know, and I know, that you wouldn’t be smiling if you were only writing to those people that you can’t get to do what you want, when you can’t write them into or out of doing anything yet. Which means that you have to be writing to somebody new,” he was told, with impeccable logic.

“Mm,” said Bill, unable to refute it.

“You talking to multiple new somebodies on that thing, or just one?” Stanley asked of him next.

“Just one,” Bill confirmed.

“This ‘somebody’ that you’ve been talking to a demon, human, one of your ‘maniac friends?” Stanley fished for.

And Bill… paused.

\---


End file.
